Brahmans.

According to the 1881 census, strong the Hindus there were thirteen divisions of Brahmans, with a strength of 13,763 souls (males 7856, females 6407) or 3.80 per cent of the Hindu population. Of these 8337 (males 4355, females 3982) were Chitpavans; 1940 (males 1034, females 906) Deshasths; 331 (males 166, females 165) Devrukhas; 135 (males 76, females 59) Golaks; 560 (males 415, females 145) Gujaratis; 54 (males 39, females 15) Javals; 1133 (males 601, females 532) Karhadas; 73 (males 31, females 42) Kirvants; 18 (males 17, female 1) Marvadis; 56 (males 24, females 32) Palshes; 1075 (males 554, females 521) Shenvis; and 51 (males 44, females 7) Tailangs.

CHITPAVANS are returned as numbering 8337 souls and as found in most parts of the district. Most of them are said to have been settled where they now are for several generations, and probably came to Kolaba during the time of the Peshwa's supremacy. They are about the middle size, fair, and their women graceful. They speak Marathi, and are clean, neat, thrifty, and orderly. A few are traders, but most are landlords, Government servants, and religious beggars. They own mud and stone built houses surrounded by gardens. Their every day food is rice, rice and wheat bread, pulse, vegetables, butter, and curds. They take two meals a day. The men wear a round peaked turban, coat, waistcloth and shouldercloth, and square toed shoos, and the women a robe and bodice. In religion they are Smarts, and observe the regular Hindu fasts and feasts. As a class they are well-to-do. DESHASTHS Are returned as numbering 1940 souls, and are said to be found in small numbers over the whole district. Most of them seem to have come to Kolaba during Maratha supremacy. The Alibag Deshnsths are said to have come from the Deccan about a hundred years ago. They are Government servants, traders, husbandmen, and beggars. They are Rigvedis and worship Khandoba, Balaji, and Mahalakshmi. They send their boys to school and are generally well-to-do. DEVRUKHAS are returned as numbering 331 souls and as found over the whole district except Roha. They take their name from the village of Devrukh in the Sangameshvar sub-division of Ratnagiri. Most of them are husbandmen. As a class they are rather badly off but are gradually rising. They send their boys to school. Their only division is into family stocks or gotras. They are generally strong and healthy, and somewhat darker than Chitpavans and Deshasths. Their women are also strong, healthy, and dark. Their home speech is ordinary Marathi. Their house, dress, and food do not differ from those of other Kolaba Brahmans. But, though they do not differ in religion or customs from Chitpavans, Karhadas, and Deshasths, these classes look down on them and generally object to dine with them. GOLAKS, who are more like Chitpavans than Deshasths, are returned as numbering 135 souls and as found only in Alibag and Pen. They are religious beggars, taking alms from all classes except Mhars, Mangs, Chambhars, and Dheds. As a class they are well-to-do, gathering alms enough to support them in fair comfort. GUJARAT BRAHMANS are returned as numbering 560 souls and as found over the whole district. All are said to have come to Alibag as priests to Gujarat Vanis since the beginning of British rule. They are now settled in the district, and a few keep up their connection with Gujarat on marriage occasions. Their home speech is Gujarati, but they dress like Maratha Brahmans. As a class they are well off, their patrons being careful to keep them from want. JAVALS, who take their name from the village of Javalkhor in Ratnagiri and who are also known as Khots or village farmers, are returned as numbering fifty-four souls and as found in ones and twos over the whole district. None of them are priests; all are laymen. They are sturdy dark and hardworking, and their home tongue is the rough Marathi spoken by Kunbis. They dress and eat like other Brahmans, and in family matters copy Chitpavans. Other Brahmans neither eat nor marry with them. They are husbandmen, and are frugal, honest, and well-behaved. They worship all Hindu gods, but their guardian deity is Kalkai. As none of them belong to the priestly class, their household priests are Chitpavans. Social disputes are settled by the votes of the men of the caste They do not send their boys to school and show no sign of rising above their present position. KARHAADAS are returned as numbering 1133 souls and as found in Alibag, Pen, and Mahad. Many are priests, astrologers, and husbandmen; some work in the fields with their own hands and others are moneylenders and traders; but their chief occupation is Government service. In speech, dress, food, and customs, they diifer little from Deshasth Brahmans. They are fairly off, few of them rich but still fewer poor. They are a rising class.

KRAMVANTS or Veda-reciters, crroneously called Kirvants, number 73 souls and are found only in Alibag. Except that the women's eyes are not weak or grey, Kramvants do not differ from Chitpavans in appearance. There is also some slight difference in their pronunciation of Marathi, the Kramvants speaking more in the Deccan them in the Konkan style. They are clean, honest, hospitable and well-behaved, and in food, dress, and customs, differ little from Chitpavans. They generally marry with Deshasths, and sometimes with Chitpavans and occasionally with Karhadas. As a class they are well-to-do, owning land, lending money, acting as priests, and entering Government service as clerks. They send their boys to school. MARWAR BRAHMANS are returned as numbering 18 souls and as found in Roha, Pen, and Mahad, All are said to be new settlers who have come as priests to Marwar Vanis since the beginning of British rule. They speak Gujarati and dress like Maratha Brahmans. As a class they are fairly well-to-do.

PALSHES are returned as numbering 56 souls. They probably take their name from the village of Palsavli in Thana and are found only in Alibag. They have been settled in the district since before the rise of the Marathas. [Details of the palshes are given in the Thana Statistical Account. The ordinary explanation of the name pale ashin, that is flesh cater, is probabiy the work of their rivals the Deccan and Chitpavan Brahmans. The palshes seem to be an old tribe of Brahmans of Gujarat origin, who suffered by the Maratha conquest of the Konkan in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.] SHENVIS are returned as numbering 1075 souls and as found over the whole district. Except a few who are Shenvis proper, they belong to the subdivision who take their name from the village of Bhalaval in the Rajapar sub-division of Ratnagiri. The men are generally well made, middle-sized, and dark from working in the fields and following other open-air callings; the women are rather tall and regular featured. They speak Marathi, are husbandmen, grain-dealers, and bankers, and a few are in Government service. They live in good brick-built and tile-roofed houses, and cat fish and mutton, and are fond of pulse. Their dress is a waistcloth, a coat, a loosely rolled head-scarf or a Brahman turban, and shoes. Their women wear the fall Maratha robe and bodies, and on festive occasions throw a scarf over the head. They formerly employed Konkanasth, priests, but within the last few years they have begun to make use of priests of their own class. Their headmen have little authority and their caste disputes are settled by a majority of the votes of the men. Most Shenvis are well off and few are poor. One of their number Zilba Nana, an Alibag merchant, is reported to be extremely rich. They send their boys to school. TAILANGS are returned as numbering 51 souls and as found in small numbers over the whole district except in Roha, They are natives of the Madras Presidency. They come to Kolaba, and after staying a year or two begging and selling sacred threads, return to their homes. They generally learn a broken Marathi. They dine with other Brahmans, and are frugal and well-behaved. Their every day dress is a waistcloth and a shouldorcloth, but on great days they dress like local Brahmans.

Writers.

Of Writers there were two classes with a strength of 4242 (males 2085, females 2157) or 1.17 per cent of the Hindu population. Of these 4182 (males 2059, females 2123) were Kayasth Prabhus, and 60 (males 26, females 31) Patane Prabhus KAYASTH PRABHUS are returned as found over the whole district. So strong is the rivalry between Kayasth Prabhus and Brahmans, that the Brahmans have put out of caste the priests who officiate for the Prabhus. In Pen no Brahman is allowed to take alms from a Prabhu's house on pain of a fine of £1 (Rs. 10) and of excommunication, and no Prabhu is allowed to enter the Mahadev temple. As a class the men are middle-sized and slightly built, and the women graceful. They speak Marathi and are clean and hardworking. They are mostly writers and accountants, but some are husbandman and traders. Most of them live in one or two-storied brick or stone and lime built houses with tiled roofs. They eat fish, and the flesh of goats and sheep, and drink liquor. Their daily food is rice; pulse, vegetables, and fish. Both men and women dress like Konkan Brahmans. Among them girls are married between nine and eleven, and boys between twelve and sixteen. They burn their dead and do not allow widow marriage. Polygamy is allowed and practised. They are generally Bhagvats and have images of their gods in their houses. Their priests, who are Brahmans, are treated with respect. They keep all Hindu holidays and fasts. Social disputes are settled by a meeting of the men of the caste, and the decision of the majority is respected. They send their boys to school, and though the competition for clerkships has greatly increased, they are still well-to-do.

PATANE PRABHUS are returned from the whole district except Pen. The date of their arrival in the district is not known. Though in the main agreeing with the Marathi spoken by north Konkan Brahmans, there is among the elders a considerable non-Marathi element in their home talk. They are generally frank, hospitable, and loyal. Their houses are like the ordinary dwellings of well-to-do Hindus, and they eat fish and flesh but do not drink liquor. They have two meals a day, and on fast days eat neither fish nor flesh. The men dress like Maratha Brahmans, and the women like Bombay Prabhus in the half-sleeved bodice and robe. Girls are married between seven and ten, and boys between twelve and twenty. To perform their children's marriages they go to Bombay and spend from £100 to £300 (Rs. 1000-Rs. 3000). They burn their dead, forbid widow marriage, and in rare cases practise polygamy. They are mostly Shaivs, worship all Hindu gods, and observe all Brahman fasts and feasts. They have no headman and no caste council, all disputes being settled in the ordinary law courts. Heavy marriage expenses have reduced many families to straitened circumstances, and day by day the old residents of Chaul, Pen, and other places are selling their houses and lands and leaving the district to live in Bombay. Except those in Government service almost none of the old residents remain.

Merchants.

Of Merchants, Traders, and Shopkeepers, there were five classes with a strength of 8206 or 2.27 per cent of the Hind a population. Of these 22 (males 10, females 12) were Bhansalis; 18 (males 11, and females 7) Bhatiyas; 5 (males 3, females 2) Joharis; 10 (males 5 females 5) Komtis; and 8151 (males 4711, females 3440) Vanis. BHANSALIS are returned as numbering twenty-two and as found in Alibag only. They are fair and tall, and wear the top-Knot. and moustache. Their home tongue is Marathi, They are clean, thrifty, and hardworking, and earn their living as petty shopkeepers and husbandmen. They live in substantial one or two storied houses, and own cattle and keep servants. Their staple food is nee, pulse, vegetables, butter and sugar, and in private they eat flesh and drink liquor. The men wear the waistcloth, coat and turban, and the women the Maratha robe and bodice. They marry then daughters after twelve and burn their dead. They worship all Hindu gods and goddesses, and their priests are Gujarat Brahmans. Their chief holiday is Shilisaptami, which falls on the seventh of Shravan (August-September), when they eat food cooked the previous evening. They send their boys to school and are fairly off. BHATIYAS are found in small numbers in Alibag, Mahad, and Pen they are said to have come about a hundred years ago as traders from Mandvi in Cutch. They are well off. They speak Gujarati at, home and Marathi out-of-doors. As a rule they are hardworking, and trade in grain and cotton. Their usual food is rice, pulse and butter in the morning, and rice bread in the evening. Fish and meat are forbidden them. Except their special double-horned turban, the men's dress does not differ from that of high class Marcithas. Their women dress like Gujarati women. Their chief gods are Mahadev and Gopalkrishna, They go to their native country on marriage occasions. They are a steady people. JOHARIS come from Poona- and pass through though the streets of Kolaba towns and big villages, hawking brass pots and vessels, which they carry in baskets and exchange closely for old clothes and sometimes for money. They speak a rough Marathi, but their home tongue is Hindustani. In food, dress, and appearance they look like high, class Marathas, They worship Shiv and are fairly off, saving money and sending their boys to school. They are unscrupulous and successful bargainers, often getting valuable embroidered clothes worth twice the brassware they give in exchange. KOMTIS are returned as numbering ten souls and as found in Pen only. They are a dark thin people and their young women are good-looking. They live like Brahmans and wear the sacred thread. They beg and also sell basil plant beads, sacred threads, and gopichandan pills. As a class they are well-to-do.

VANIS are of four divisions, Gujarat, Marwar, Lingayat and Maratha. Gujarat Vanis, of five subdivisions, Kapol, Shrimali, Khadait, Sorathiya and Desaval, are found in small numbers over the whole district and are well-to-do. KAPOL VANIS are found mostly in Alibag, and there are about ten of them in Pen. They are divided into Delvadias and Ghogaris, the Delvadias neither giving daughters to nor taking wives from the Ghogaris. They are permanent settlers. They are said to have come about a hundred and fifty years ago as traders. Their home speech is Gujarati, but out-of-doors they speak Marathi. They are moneylenders and live in substantial houses. They eat twice a day rice, rice bread, pulse, and butter. The men dress like ordinary Maratha Brahmans, and the women like Gujarat Vani women. They are Vaishnavs and their social disputes are settled by a hereditary Nagarshet. They are well-to-do. SHAIMALI VANIS are divided into Jains and Vaishnavs. They came about two hundred years ago from Gujarat as traders, and as a class are well off. They generally speak Marathi out-of-doors and Gujarati at home. They live in good houses and are vegetarians, eating rice, pulse, and rice bread. The men usually dress like upper class Marathas, and the women like Gujarat Vani women. They are untidy in their dress, but generally have a store of rich clothes. They still go to Gujarat on marriage occasions. KHADAITS, SORATHIYAS and DESAVALS, who are said to have come into the. district about a hundred years ago, are Vaishnavs by religion and settled permanently, though they occasionally go to Gujarat on marriage occasions. In manners, customs, dress and habits, they do not differ from Kapol Vanis.

MARWAR VANIS are of three main divisions, Porvads, Osvals, and Meshris. They are found in most large villages. They are well-to-do, many of them rich, all the money having been made since they came to the district. They were formerly complete strangers, going to Marwar as soon as they made money enough to marry and often returning to Marwar to spend their old age. Of late, though most keep some connection with Marwar, they are practically settled in Kolaba and have become more anxious to gain full or part proprietary rights in land. MESHRIS are not settled in the district. They come as traders and do not bring their families. They are generally moneylenders and shopkeepers. Their home tongue is Marwari, but out-of-doors they speak incorrect Marathi. Their dress is like that of an ordinary Marwari Vani. They rub sandal on their brow and wear a necklace of basil plant beads. They cat rice, pulse, wheat and butter. They are Vaishnavs in religion and are well-to-do.

Most of the LINGAYAT VANIS came from above the Sahyadm as traders about twenty-five years ago. Very few are permanent settlers, most of them living with their families in hired houses. Their state is middling. They speak Deccan Marathi, and both men and women dress like high class Marathas. Their character is good. Some of them are priests and others are husbandmen, but most are village grocers. The men work in their shops and a few, who can write, serve as shopmen during the day and in the evening write the day's accounts. The women look after the house, and when old sometimes help the men in the shop. Their staple food is rice, pulse, and hill grains of which they make bread. They are forbidden fish or flesh. They generally wear Deccan hand-woven cloth because of its strength. Both men and women wear a ling hanging in a case from their necks. They are generally dark and strong, and the women well made. Their houses have mud walls and thatched roofs, very few are tiled. They worship Samb or Shiv and the bull, nandi, or Shiva's carrier. They generally marry with other Konkan Lingayats, very few get wives from the Deccan. They have no social relations with other Kolaba Vanis. Their priests are Jangams. LINGAYATS are found throughout the district, especially in Roha. The head-quarters and chief monastery of the sect is at Karbudra in the Karnatik. There are four leading divisions of Lingayats, Jangams, Panchams, Shinvants, and Tinvants. Among theso the Jangams rank highest. Excepting Tinvants, these divisions eat together and intermarry. The Lingayats perfom the same sixth and the twelfth day ceremonies after the birth of a child, as are usually performed by upper class Kolaba Hindus. Children, both boy's and girls, when they reach the age of seven, are invested with a ling, which is worn either hanging from the neck or tied to the righ's forearm. After investiture they are always required to wear then- lings especially at meals. Their marriage differs from a Brahamanic marriage in having no cloth drawn between the bride and bridegroom at the time of the ceremony. All their ceremonies take place on Mondays, which they bold specially sacred and well-omened. With them death is a subject for rejoicing, as the dead Lingayat goes straight to Shiv's heaven. When a death takes place, they call their relations in and hold a feast. The body is worshipped seated on a shrine-like bier and buried sitting, still wearing the ling, There is no mourning, and no shaving of the men's moustaches or of the widow's head. Social disputes are settled at a meeting of the males of the caste. They send their boys to school whenever they cart. They are an increasing and well-to-do class.

MARATHA VANIS, probably the oldest class of traders in the district, are returned as found over the whole of Kolaba. They are of three subdivisions, Kudali from Kudal in Savantvadi, Sangameshvari from Sangameshvar in Ratnagiri, and Patane. [The Patane Vanis are said to take their name from Patan in Satara.] According to the local story, their forefathers came from the Deccan during the great Durgadevi famine (1396-1408). They settled in Goa and Vadi, and remained there till about the middle of the seventeenth century, when, on account of ill usage, they fled to Kantira, Belgaum, Ratnagiri, Kolaba, and Thana. The three subdivisions da not marry or eat together. Among them the Kudalis claim superiority wearing the sacred thread and forbidding widow marriage. The men are tall strong and dark, with long rather gaunt faces, the nose straight, the lips thin, and the cheeks sunken. The women, who are fairer and better looking than the men, are fond of wearing flowers in their hair. Their widows are much given to prayer and worship, listening to sacred books and telling their beads. Their home speech is Marathi somewhat mixed with Konkani. Except a few who are husbandmen, they are small traders and shopkeepers, wanting in enterprise and unwilling to give up the trade followed by their fathers, even though it has ceased to pay. They own one-storied mud-built houses covered with tiles. In front of the house is an open shed, angne, in which is the shop. Their stock in trade is laid out on the veranda, or ota. Inside is the central hall, majghar, with idols set in niches in the wall. On one side of the central hall is the cook-room. Next to it is a room where the women do all the house work, and grind and pound grain. On one side of it is the bathing place. Behind the house, is an open yard with a basil plant on a pillar, and, behind this, the stable, with cows, buffaloes, bullocks, and in a few houses a horse or a pony. A relation of the family generally serves as an apprentice and minds the shop, besides the ordinary grains and vegetables, they eat fish and mutton and drink liquor. Their caste dinners consist of small fried cakes, vades, and pea soup costing from 4½ d. to 6d. (3-4 as) a head. On holidays a variety of dishes are prepared at a cost of from dd. to 1S 3d. (6-10 as.) ahead. In-doors the men wear as mall waistcloth, paneha, and, on going out, roll a cloth-scarf round the head, draw a waistcloth over the shoulders, and put on shoes. At marriages and other ceremonies they wear the middle-sized flat rimmed Maratha Brahman turban and a coat. They generally keep in store two or three pairs of waistcloths worth altogether from 16s. to £1 (Rs. 8-Rs. 10), and one or two coats worth from 1s. to 3s. (as. 8-Re. 1) each. the women wear the full Maratha robe and short-sleeved bodice worth from 6s. to 7s. (Rs. 3 - Rs. 3½) which covers the back and bosom. They have in- store a robe, valued at from 12s. to £1 ( Rs. 6-Rs. 10), and a-bodice worth from 1s. to 1s. 6d. (8 -12 as). The men spend their time in their shops, and the women in cleaning the house, bathing, making ready the articles of worship, worshipping the basil plant, and cooking. In the afternoon they clean, grind and pound rice, and later on, prepare the evening-meal. The poor among them work in the fields. They are Smarts and worship the ordinary Hindu gods. Their places of pilgrimage are Benares, Rameshvar, Nasik Trimbak, Gokarn, Mahabaleshvar, and Pandharpur. Their-priests are Konkanasth Brahmans whom they style gurus and greatly reverence. They have the same fasts and feasts as other Brahmanic Hindus. In former times social disputes were settled by some elderly and wealthy man, but within the last five years, one Ramchandra Vithal Kanekar has, with the consent of the caste, appointed councils or caste committees which settle disputes. Persons put out of caste are not allowed to have the services of washermen barbers, or priests, and none of the castemen are allowed to dine with them. There seem to be no signs of any decline In caste authority. Of late years there has been no change in condition. They make enough to keep themselves and their families. But they do not take to new callings and never increase their trade, even if they have the means. They never engage in large transactions, and their whole stock ranges in value from £20 to £40 (Rs. 200-Rs. 400). They send their boys to school, and when they are able to read, write, and keep Marathi accounts, they apprentice them to shopkeepers. Except four or five in Government service, all are shopkeepers.